


ItaKarin Inktober 2020 (Days 1-3)

by cherryberry12



Series: Inktober 2020 [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Inktober 2020, and the other half are modern aus, half of these are just about itachi going through various stages of being almost dead
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:20:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26764216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherryberry12/pseuds/cherryberry12
Summary: Short drabbles for @amiegalilei's Fantober Prompts! All ItaKarin, but AUs and ratings will vary by chapter.
Relationships: Karin/Uchiha Itachi
Series: Inktober 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1958443
Comments: 12
Kudos: 10





	1. Table of Contents

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! 
> 
> This has been like the busiest semester of my life so I'm gonna try my best to keep up with this! I'm aiming for about 300 words per prompt, but knowing me it'll probably be more than that. All ItaKarin, various AUs, but I might swap some side pairings in and out. I'll try to tag the chapter ratings at the beginning of each, though, since they'll vary.
> 
> Here are the prompts, if anyone wants to follow along: https://twitter.com/amiegalilei/status/1300960515439472641/photo/1

To make it easier to track what's going on, I put together a table of contents with a brief summary of each drabble! I'll be sure to update this as I go along! 

Day 1: First Day of Fall (Rated T for implied sexual content)--Canon Divergence, informant same-age AU. Loosely corresponds to whatever the heart fumbles in the dark. Features Itachi overthinking everything, sleepy Karin, and various stages of undress.

Day 2: Tea and Coffee (Rated T for swearing)--Modern AU/Uni AU where Karin is the work study for the department where Itachi has just been hired. Features very loosely implied death threats, hibiscus tea, and an industrial sink on the fourth floor. 

Day 3: Rainy Day (Rated M)--Blank Period AU, canon-divergence when Itachi returns to Konoha instead of dying. Loosely corresponds to Moving In, Moving On. Features a needy Karin, not-dead-but-not-healthy-either Itachi, and some good old-fashioned fingering.

Day 4: Love Confession (Rated T for implied sexual content)


	2. First Day of Fall (T)

The trees are thinner now, relieved of summer’s lagging humidity. The light that passes through the remaining leaves is soft, hazy to Itachi’s eyes, though when he activates his Sharingan it’s all brought into perfect clarity, every drop of dew suspended between cobwebs, every thin vein on the slowly curling leaves. 

The air is clearer in the Land of Fire, lacking the smog and human scent of Ame.

He rises slowly onto his elbows, the sore muscles in his back protesting when he does. Perhaps he’s getting too old to be doing things like this anymore, too old to be camping out in the woods with no shelter, no cover aside from the clothes on his back.

Karin is still fast asleep in the grass next to him, wrapped comfortably in his cloak. She’s half-buried in the leaves that had fallen while they slept, her cheeks rosy from the cold and her eyelashes wet. 

She’d been warm enough when she’d pulled off of him last night, sticky with sweat, her naked back dyed orange by the light of their fire. 

She commandeered his cloak before he could offer it to her, rolling back onto the grass with her naked legs peeking out from underneath. 

_Kabuto says Sasuke’s training is going well_ , she told him, waiting until he stood to dress to begin talking. _Next year, he said—Sasuke’s body will be ready next year._

Another year of waiting, potentially. Another year until Sasuke will be ready to face him, and yet--

“Mhm. Hey, you.” 

He hadn’t intended to wake Karin, but it happens anyway—even the slightest stirring of his chakra will eventually rouse her. 

Karin rolls over onto her back, blinking lazily up at him. With or without his Sharingan, her hair is still the brightest thing in the forest, more red than the pillow of red maple leaves under her head. 

She’s slightly disheveled under his robe, her shirt still unzipped and her collar wrinkled. She at least had the presence of mind to replace the thin band of black fabric around her chest, though her stomach is bare under the parted halves of her shirt. “What time is it?”

“Early.” Early enough that the early morning fog still clings to them both, that when Karin sighs, her breath rises in a small cloud above her

“Feels too early,” Karin grumbles. She tucks his robe around her shoulders, snuggling further into it. “We gotta find an inn next time. Winter is gonna kill me.”

“Maybe.” Most of their meetings are planned well in advance to allow him to find suitable lodging, but occasionally things fall into place by chance—Karin will sense his chakra and come in search of him.

An inn would be much more convenient, but Orochimaru’s spies are plentiful and the inviting fires he sees through the windows of village inns are not as safe as they appear. 

For the type of business he and Karin conduct, a lonely corner of the forest will have to suffice. 

Karin hums. “You’ll probably need to be going soon, huh?” she asks. “I told Kabuto I’d be back by the end of the day, but I can run fast if I need to, though,” she tells him, only half-joking. There’s very little she would ever offer him that she wouldn’t willingly give, very little she would have an interest in withholding from him.

The corner of Karin’s mouth perks up. “You see something worth remembering?” she asks. She slips a little more out of his robe, and the hand that wraps around his bicep is cold, her bare forearm rough with goosebumps. It’s only the first day of fall, but winter feels all the more closer for it.

The cold makes him denser, makes the rot he’s been carrying around in his lungs even more solid, even more substantial. Spending so much time in the cold is bad for his health, but Itachi has promises yet to keep—months, perhaps, until he’ll be called upon to fulfill his obligation to Sasuke. 

Karin cocks her head. “So are you going to be leaving soon or what?”

Itachi shrugs. “There is still time left.”


	3. Tea and Coffee (T for swearing)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karin doesn't mind her work study job, it's just the work part that gets to her. 
> 
> Uni AU.

Karin brings the professors coffee every Friday morning. 

The Dunkin Donuts on campus is only a slight detour on her way to the political science building, but there’s always a wait—groggy college kids in sweatshirts and athletic shorts line the back wall, too cold to commit to t-shirts anymore, but still clinging to the smallest scraps of summer. 

These are the poorest sons of bitches on campus—the dumb freshmen and unlucky sophomores who end up with morning classes on a Friday. And Karin, who purposely cleared her class schedule so she could work the whole day. She figures if she’s going to get up before noon she might as well get paid for it.

Karin doesn’t mind her work study job, it’s just the work part that gets to her. 

In the three years she’s worked for the political science department, though, she’s learned that the professors don’t care how late she is so long as she brings coffee with her. Professor Hoshigaki is a terrifying wall of a man, 6’7 and built like a tank, but he’s also the most generous faculty member—he reimburses her for every cent she spends, regardless of how superfluous the faculty’s orders get. 

(Like Professor Akasuna who, every Friday without fail, orders five shots of toasted almond flavoring, set aside in an individual cup.

He’s never bothered to explain what he does with it. Once, though, in an unusually conversational mood, he’d remarked offhandedly that _eventually Deidara will stop registering the scent of almonds._

Karin has worked there long enough to know better than to ask Professor Akasuna for any more detail than that.)

Picking up coffee costs her nothing, and every second she spends watching freshmen scroll through their Instagram feeds is a second she doesn’t have to spend working in her shitty little storage closet of an office.

“Five large coffees, a dark roast, a frozen coffee, a hibiscus tea, and five shots of toasted almond on the side?” 

“Yeah, that’s me.” The barista is able to squeeze all of Karin’s drinks into two cupholders, but she has to wedge Professor Akasuna’s little cup of almond flavoring into the middle to get it all to fit.

Karin is quick on the way out—she’s brave enough to show up late to work, but nowhere near brave enough to show up late with cold coffee. 

The second she sets the cupholders down on the mailroom counter, the door to the adjunct lounge clicks open. Karin turns around to see a lone, red-ringed eye staring back at her. 

She remains perfectly still, knowing that adjuncts, much like dinosaurs, seem to lose interest in anything that isn’t currently moving. The adjunct slinks along the hallway wall before he snatches his vanilla-and-caramel-with-a-shot-of-hazelnut frozen coffee off the desk and scurries back into the lounge. 

She’s just come to accept that, despite being better paid than she is by exponential amounts, the faculty can be just as feral as undergrads where food and coffee were concerned.

Well, all except one of them. Karin runs to grab the mail, and when she comes back all of the drinks are gone except for one: a large hibiscus tea with eight sugars.

She initially thought it was a typo, but Professor Hoshigaki assured her it wasn’t—the new professor just really likes sugar. 

Karin hasn’t had the chance to formally meet Professor Uchiha just yet, but she’s seen him carting cardboard boxes back and forth from his new office. The fact that he hadn’t tried to make her do it for him had instantly endeared him to her. 

From careful research, Karin knows he’s got more degrees and fellowships than tenured professors twice his age despite only being a few years older than Karin herself. It’s taken the kind of toll on him that, when she’s seen him talking to the other professors, it’s hard to tell that he’s almost twenty years younger than most of them.

He gives off a weirdly idealistic vibe, like he’s the type of person who genuinely thinks he’s gonna change the world by publishing articles at a shitty Midwestern university, the type who goes out of his way to see the good in others.

As long as he isn’t the type to question why the work study would spend an hour or two just fucking around in his office, Karin isn’t going to complain about it. 

The light is on in his office, but when she knocks on the door there’s no answer. 

She waits a few seconds, knocks again, but still gets no answer. Normally she’d just come back later, but in this case… Karin doesn’t see any harm in waiting for him to come back. 

That is, waiting for him in his office. Karin opens the door and lets herself in. 

Her first, hasty thought is that the fucking bastard is dead already—he’s sprawled over his desk facedown, his long, black hair held back in the saddest ponytail Karin thinks she’s ever seen in her life. 

Her next thought, after having another moment to process, is that if he isn’t dead yet, he’s definitely gonna be dead by the end of the semester. His desk is already covered in shit—she can barely see the surface of it under the spread of papers, and she counts at least a half dozen pens and uncapped highlighters scattered around him.

Hadn’t this guy ever heard of syllabus week? 

“Hello?” she tries. There’s no response, but a second later the radiator behind him kicks on with a violent rattle, and his hand twitches.

“Mm.” His hand twitches again, tightens into a fist, and then Professor Uchiha sighs, and pulls himself into a sitting position. 

He obviously hadn’t heard her before because he freezes when he sees her. He squints in her general direction, and then fumbles around the mess of his desk until he finds his glasses. “Ah, hello?” 

Karin blinks, then remembers why she’s there in the first place. “I—I brought your tea?” 

“My tea,” he echoes. He still sounds a little dazed, like he isn’t entirely sure yet where he is or how he ended up there. 

“Yes?” She holds the cup up for him to see, then approaches his desk slowly and sets the cup down in front of him. She’s caught professors doing weird shit before, but sleeping—well, sleeping in the office wasn’t even close to the weirdest thing she’d seen. 

Still, she couldn’t help feeling sorry for the poor bastard. “The tea that you asked for? The hibiscus stuff?”

“Oh. I suppose I did ask Kisame for that.”

“Um—” She cringes. “Are you like, okay?” 

“I’m fine,” Professor Uchiha says, though there’s no way that he means. He stares at the cardboard cup in front of him for a long minute before he sighs and picks it up. He pops off the lid, tosses the teabag in the trash, and takes a long, relieved sip. 

“You know there isn’t even caffeine in that, right?” she asks. 

He gives her a tired look, the violet bruises under his eyes garishly dark in the shitty fluorescent lighting. “I am very much aware.” 

“Right.” 

He pauses, then frowns. “Am I supposed to tip you…?” he asks, suddenly sounding uncertain.

Karin almost laughs—this guy is absolutely fucked. 

For a moment, she’s very sorely tempted to say yes, because he’s almost definitely gullible enough to believe her, but… Something about him almost seems too pathetic for her to try to take advantage of him, which is really saying something because Karin wouldn’t hesitate to take advantage of literally anyone. 

“I’m the work study,” she tells him instead. “So like, no.” 

“Karin,” he responds immediately. He blurts it way too fast, like he’s answering a question. “You’re a computer science major.” 

“Yes?”

“There’s a—” He looks down at his desk, and then grimaces. Having placed her, he seems significantly more comfortable speaking to her. “At some point, I did have a list of all the people who worked for the department. I seem to have misplaced it.” 

“‘Misplaced,’” she echoes.

He grimaces again. “I—Konan, that is, the Vice Chair of the department—she’s working on a research paper on international trade. I wanted to be up-to-date in case I happened to run into her, but…” He gestures vaguely. “There’s a significant amount that’s been written,” he mutters, already shuffling papers back into rough stacks.

Karin takes it all in—his disheveled shirt and messy ponytail, the bruises under his eyes that even Ino probably couldn’t cover up. She comes to an unfortunate realization. “Did… did you spend the night here?” she asks. 

He doesn’t answer, which is almost worse than admitting it. 

Karin takes a step back toward the door. 

“I don’t intend to make a habit of it,” he quickly explains. “Just—just until I have better situated myself in the department, you see.” 

“Right. I get that,” she lies. He seems desperate enough to believe she’s telling the truth that he takes it at face value. “If you need help…” It takes everything in her being to actually continue—”I mean, I’m paid to help out around here, so I could, you know, help.” 

“Well...” For a moment, he seems sorely tempted by it. “I wouldn’t want to keep you from your other work around here.” 

Just as well, Karin can hear what he really means— _I have literally never accepted someone else’s help before in my life and I literally do not know how to._

Karin shrugs offhandedly. “It’s syllabus week, so none of the professors really need me for anything right now. If Professor Kakuzu finds out I don’t have anything to do, he’ll just make me help the grad students clean out the lounge, and I—I really don’t wanna get stuck doing that.” 

She thinks it’s almost worth it when she sees a sliver of a smile in the corner of the professor’s mouth.

He smooths the papers out over his desk. “These are—I had them in order when I started, but then I needed to find specific pages… If you—perhaps you could help me put these back in order, then.” 

“Yeah, I think I can manage that.” Karin looks at his relieved smile, and decides to pity him a little more. “If you don’t want the other professors—I mean, the physics department used to be on the fourth floor, you know. It’s mostly study rooms now, but if you go to where the labs used to be, there’s an industrial sized sink in there, and you can lock the door…” She trails off, assuming he’s smart enough to get where she’s going. 

He blinks, and then his face washes over with relief. “That would… be nice.” 

Karin jerks her thumb back toward the hall. “If anyone comes snooping, I’ll just tell them you had more boxes to bring up.” 

That seems to seal the deal for the professor, because he gives her one more grateful nod before he digs a bag of toiletries out of his desk and slips out of his office. Karin hears the doorway to the stairs click open and shut, and assumes he’s well on his way to the fourth floor. 

Karin drops down into his office chair and pulls out her phone to shoot Ino a quick text but, at the last second, slips it back into her pocket.

She can always check it after work—until then, someone really has to help this poor son of a bitch get his shit together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 3 is in the drafts! I've literally never written so fast in my life!

**Author's Note:**

> Looks at the month of October: haha im in trouble 
> 
> ive never been busier in my life but here goes. 
> 
> Prompts are already picked out, but I gotta do like 31 of these so feel free to mention an AU you'd like to see! I can't guarantee that I'll be able to get to it, but I've got lots of spots to fill 🙆♀️


End file.
